Those Worse Off Than You

After I let a bit of courage build up inside of me, I tugged on the sleeves of my sweater and unlocked the door, slowly walking into the living room. My mother was sitting on the couch knitting, before she put it in her lap and looked up at me sympathetically.

“Honey, what happened? Where were you?”

“I was… with Ace.”

“Did he do something to you? Did he hurt you? Come and sit down,” she said softly and cleared off an area on the couch beside her.

My dad sat silently in his recliner and peered over his paper every once and a while.

I sat down and sighed, wiping my face with my hand.

“What’s this all about?”

“I… don’t know. We were just walking down the street… and this car stopped beside us. He pushed me into the bush and told me to stay there and this drunken man came out of the car- I guess... I guess it was his dad. He started… hurting Ace, then he made him get in the car with him- It all happened so fast. They drove off down the road and I ran home after that...”

My mother brought a hand to her mouth, while I saw my dad cock an eyebrow and look at my mom.

“Oh dear,” my mother muttered.

It was silent for a while.

“Jayden, maybe you should get some rest,” my dad suggested and got up from the couch and led me to my bedroom.

“Just try and get some sleep. Let your mother and I handle this sort of thing,” he smiled, tucking the blankets around me as if I were a little kid. He kissed my cheek and left the room; leaving the door opened an inch.

I sat in the dark for an hour, thinking maybe I would hear a knock at the window, or something of the sort. It never came. I sat up for half the night, with a nauseous feeling in my stomach, wondering what was going on at Ace’s house. I hoped he was okay…